#cthulhu game quotes

[inkdemonapologist]

EVERYONE'S DOING GREAT IN THE BATIM CTHULHU GAME....

Joey's legs were definitely Very Broken last session, so in this one Jack is uHHHHHH USING? THE GIFT???? THE MASKED MESSENGER GAVE HIM???? TO HEAL JOEYS LEGS????? im sure thats fine

What's also definitely fine and normal is Prophet trying to interrupt a ritual and getting all of the ink sucked directly out of his body by said ritual????? GREAT!! COOL!!!! NOT LIKE HE NEEDS THAT TO STAY CONSCIOUS OR ANYTHING!!!

anyway have some drawings of the music boys having a normal one, and also, if you like out-of-context TTRPG quotes, have some out-of-context quotes from the most recent session under the cut!!

[Sammy is played by me, Joey is played by Boo (inkyvendingmachine), Henry is played by Maf (inkcryptid), Jack is played by Mochi (whatyouwantedmetosee) and Thren (haunted-hijinxer) is our GM!]

[Sammy] Sammy’s going to play carnival games! [GM] Okay! He sees a pop-gun and a shooting set-up. [Sammy] … I’m not super good at shooting. Do I have to follow the rules? Can I just like… go stand up close to it? [GM] I mean… no one’s telling you not to… [Sammy] I’m gonna cheat. [Joey] I love the idea of Prophet just, climbing up onto the counter and, as the targets go by, just poking them with the gun,

[Sammy] I am… hMMMRRMRMMmmm… I’m gonna try to stop running off without the rest of the sheep… [GM] Prophet’s New Year’s Resolution,

[Henry] Henry’s going to pick them up and carry them over to Leon. [Sammy] Leon? Really? [Henry] HE’S A MEDIC! [Sammy] I mean, Jack’s here and Jack’s not going to be confused that Joey has horns! [GM] He does look a little, hyperventilate-y, but, uh, he’s trying to fumble for his medical stuff, [Henry] …well okay if he looks panicked Henry’s going to turn around and take him to Jack. [GM] Just turns around on his heel like “Nope, that’s no good” [Sammy] Leon’s like “OKAY GOT MY DOCTORS KIT RIGHT HERE UH UM UH” and Henry’s just like “No. No.” [Jack] Jack also has an indefinite insanity, he’s got the same risk of fumbling, he also probably has LOWER medical skill – [Sammy] Yeah, that’s true, [Henry] OKAY, then yeah, you’re right, I’m taking him to Leon – [Joey] *laughs* Henry turns – Henry carries Joey towards Leon, Leon starts fumbling for his medical stuff, Henry turns around, takes one step towards Jack, looks at Jack, y’know, recovering from this very intense negotiation between two machines… and then TURNS AROUND AND HEADS BACK TO LEON,

[Henry] He might just set Joey on the desk and then be like “He’s hurt, can you help him.” [Joey] (“Fix.”) [Jack] (This is when Leon lets us know that he is not a doctor of medicine.)

[Sammy] At some point, Prophet will pop back into the room and say something like, “Come quickly, my sheep! Yellow mist rose from below!” [Jack] Jack’s gonna… turn to face the Prophet. And he’s not sure what look he’s giving him, but he’s giving him a look of SOME form. [Jack] Probably mostly panicked, honestly, [Sammy] Sammy, my guy, read the room!

[Sammy] Is Bendy having this one-sided conversation Out Loud? [GM] Yeah, that’s what I’m imagining! [Sammy] Ohhh I’m sure this is FINE, what’s gonna phase Leon at this point, honestly!! [GM] Just things about, “Where did you go, we were all worried, what are you doing, I think your legs aren’t okay? Sorry I tried to stand on them, I hope I didn’t mess them up,” [Joey] Hm…… this is a lot of information to feed into a Just Waking Up Joey, [Jack] And now Joey knows what it feels like to be talked at by Joey Drew!

[Henry] *carrying Joey* If you die because of this, I’ll kill you.

[Jack] Jack is gonna put the audiolog in his bag. [GM] Pete approves of this. [Sammy] Oh my goodness, Pete don’t enable him! [GM] He will!

[Joey] I’m suddenly worried about Henry… [Henry] I’M worried about Henry trying to carry Joey down these slippery stairs! [GM] You should be! :) [Sammy] That's an ominous thing for the GM to say… [Henry] Next up, HENRY breaks his legs! [Sammy] EVERYONE STOP BREAKING YOUR LEGS!

[Jack] Should I do something interesting? [Sammy] Yes. YES! Don’t listen to me, but YES.

[Henry] Henry is looking at him, with– it’s been oddly hard to read his expressions lately, I think, but he is… you have his attention!

[GM] There’s a counter on that shooting gallery setup– [Jack] Y-yeah, just, just put him down somewhere, I guess;;;; I don’t want to know what would happen if he tried to do this while Henry was carrying him. I don’t think he knows what he’s doing…! [Henry] Okay, Henry will put him down… [GM] Peter is also wondering what Jack is doing, but– [Jack] ANYWAY! Um…Jack is going to rummage through all of Joey’s pockets! [Joey] *bURSTS OUT LAUGHING* [Joey] I KNOW THAT THIS MIGHT HAVE, OTHER REASONS, But I’m JUST LOSIN' IT at “okay put him down! *STEALS ALL HIS STUFF* Okay thanks!”

[Jack] I don’t know how to explain this! Jack doesn’t normally do things that require explaining! He just collapses, in the swamp!!

[Sammy] Hey, Jack, what happened to your Constitution? [Jack] Oh y’know! [Sammy] Okay, alright, just checking! [Jack] Y’know, normal things! [Jack] Anyway, Jack feels terrified, but also great! It’s fine. :)

[GM] I don’t think Bendy is clued into all this weirdness. He’s just like, that was great! He didn’t know people could do that, why don’t they do that all the time?

[Joey] Did the ink go into his legs and then heal them? Or did the ink go into his legs. [GM] His legs do not hurt anymore! There’s some of that weird, displaced numbness? Where the breaks were? But they don’t hurt! Anymore! [Joey] …okay, but, [Henry] I notice that does NOT answer the question.

[GM] And Sammy can see that the person there is holding a bowl up to this mirror, where it seems to be filling with this knockoff yellow ink! [Jack] They are juicing it!

[GM] Is Joey being careful, going down these stairs? [Joey] You said it’s a spiral staircase, right? [GM] Mmhm! [Sammy] Joey, [Joey] Joey is going to, attempt to – [Sammy] jOEY, [Joey] –slide the railing! [GM] There isn’t a railing. [Joey] There’s not a railing??? [GM] There is not a railing. [Joey] Awww… [GM] You could slide down the stairs I suppose??? [Sammy] (Bumpbumpbump) [Joey] Joey is going to be disappointed that whoever made this scene forgot the most important elements of a spiral staircase!! [Sammy] Joey Drew… [GM] It’s just stone walls. [Joey] *dejected* This sucks… How am I supposed to cartoon my way down! This is so dumb! [Henry] You just WALK DOWN! Like a NORMAL PERSON!!! [Joey] NO!!! [Joey] …How deep is the drop, again? [GM] About two and a half stories. [Henry] Joey we just got those legs fixed! [Jack] JOEY DREW DON’T YOU DARE.

[Jack] Jack’s good at this, at least! *rolls* ….. Jack’s theoretically good at this,,,

[Sammy] Oh, it’s Moonlight! He’s in Carcosa! [Sammy] This would be SO funny if it was like, vanilla-flavour Sammy, hearing these threats from this guy he interacted with like, ONCE [GM] Sammy DID hear threats with the guy he interacted with once! That was like, his interaction! Running away while being yelled at with all sorts of horrible threats of bodily harm. [Sammy] Sammy checking his texts like “Who is this…”

[Joey] Joey is going to ask Bendy what Henry is doing right now, how Henry is faring. [GM] Bendy will say that it looks like he’s stabbing tentacles, with a pocket knife? [Jack] Well that seems normal, and not at all alarming! [Sammy] Yeah, I mean, that’s just a thing Henry does sometimes, I dunno [Henry] Normal Henry Behaviour, [Sammy] Exactly! [Joey] Joey is going to tell Bendy to keep an eye on them, but he wants to press forward to see if they can stop the ritual, because he doesn’t think they have time to run back, and also, he thinks Henry deserves to get a really heroic shot. [Henry] Thanks,,

[Joey] YEET THE TENTACLE MONSTER! [Joey] Jack has experience with snake-yeeting, so it helps.

[GM] Oh, nevermind, Peter is not scooting away, he is not moving much. [Joey] (Peter,,, Now is not the time…!) [Jack] ...Because he’s freaked out, or because he’s injured? [Joey] Because he left! He’s not there! He took Jack’s job! He was in this stressful situation and he just peaced out!!

[Sammy] I feel like I’m not going to be able to use the “scoping out the hotel” bonus dice. I think that ship may have sailed. [Henry] Clearly, in 30 years, Sammy ends up back at the same hotel, and goes, “oh! Hang on! I recognise this place!” [DM] It’s just lodged in his brain, [Sammy] He still has the bonus die, 30 years later… gotta return to the wRECKAGE OF CONEY ISLAND… [DM] …Let’s not wreck Coney Island. [Sammy] It WILL be wrecked in 30 years! [Joey] We don’t have to wreck it! [Sammy] It’s gonna burn down all by itself. [Joey] All by itself… and also just, conveniently for insurance claim purposes!

[GM] There would be magical backlash, that would probably hit all concerned, especially probably the lady, and if she were to die it would be very bad for the art of dance! [Sammy] Okay… but it wouldn’t bring about the Yellow King, just nobody could dance anymore? [GM] …potentially. [Sammy] Technically, nooooobody told me “and make sure people are still able to dance afterwards” [Sammy] Obviously that’s the IDEAL outcome, but it’s not… a necessary thing… [Henry] Sammy please

[GM] Peter doesn’t seem like he’s breathing well, but you could probably sort that out just by, like, positioning him a little better – [Joey] WELL~! I guess Jack just has to perform CPR then~! [Sammy] *laughs* I WAS ABOUT TO SAY, Alright, time for mouth-to-mouth~! [Joey] …probably, away from the tentacles, though?

[Jack] And what’s goin’ on with… other guy whose name I totally remember? [GM] Leon! Mostly cowering. [GM] He kind of grabs onto Jack’s arm when he gets close, and he’s just got his eyes closed and he’s trying to get his breathing under control, and he’s like, *nervously psyching self up* “Okayokayokayokay! Okay… let’s go…!” [Jack] Oh… oh no I got attached to him…

[Henry] Henry’s gonna tell him he can go back upstairs to Allison, if he wants. [Sammy] There is a steam-engine-headed man up there, but, y’know. [Sammy] Beggars can’t be choosers.

[GM] Leon’s still not looking. [Sammy] Need to get you a mask without eye-holes, my dude. They do wonders.

[GM] You hear a voice that doesn’t, sound… classically human?

[Joey] He’s planning on doing Giant Cartoon Hand Grab, and yanking her out of the circle the moment he sees Prophet cause a distraction. [Sammy] These two work SO well together for how much they DON’T work well together.

[Jack] We make bad decisions here in the music department.

[frogblast-the-ventcore]

Out of context Call of Cthulhu quote drop:

"Excuse me for interruptin', lassies, but Lynch is dead, Ruby's tryin' ta strip naked, and the tent's on fire!"

Try and guess the context! I will reveal the context in ~12 hours.

@fairytaleofgears @wanderingcub @buttsandboltguns you do not get to guess the context because you already know it.

[madfishmonger]

Karl Marx is a member of the Marx Brothers comedy troupe

Groucho Marx wears cardboard facial hair

In a Call of Cthulhu game, first session, one of the players wanted to play a conspiracy theorist, but rightly knows real conspiracies are racist/sexist/antisemitic etc, so we suggested he go for absolutely bonkers stuff that he just makes up.

So far we have (that I recall):

The fish/monkey skeleton hybrids in circus displays are real animals

Big Ben is organic and was grown

Bees are harmlessly shorn to make a red food colouring

Wax figurines are replacing the royal family, but they're often replaced which is why you never see them melting (Madame Tussaud is in on this obviously)

I can't wait to see what else he comes up with. The mental image of the bees being sheared like sheep absolutely killed me. Also Big Ben growing like a tree XD

[utilitycaster]

@rowzeoli replied to your post “Do you think part of the D20 journalistic bias...”:

I rarely go on tumblr so sorry if you see me spamming your posts tonight, but I really enjoy your perspective and thoughts! I think I'm the journalist you're referencing in regards to the Fantasy High Junior Year article and unfortunately 1) journalists only get access to interview subjects at very specific junctions (usually press day before the series goes out or halfway through) 2) most publications are honestly Going Through It and cutting freelance rates and just not paying to cover AP

​So I'll be totally honest - I post on Tumblr because I assume it is far more unlikely to be seen and so I can vent freely (hence the fairly harsh tone of the criticism in the original post), but I guess this is a chance to clarify. I don't expect anything to change, nor do I expect you to respond; indeed, I wouldn't blame you if you block me after this. But if readership is down (and who knows? maybe it's not and I'm the outlier), this may be illuminating.

The issue with your specific article - which I brought up relatively tangential to the larger point of "at this point I think Polygon's AP/TTRPG coverage is a waste of time to read" isn't really that it's only an early look at the series; and because Fantasy High Junior Year is at this time ongoing, it's honestly entirely valid that there hasn't been a follow-up. It's, well, the "surface-level and factually wrong" issue.

Dimension 20 was by no means the pioneer of remote recording as you claim in your article; that had long been the default of smaller recorded AP shows well before pandemic lockdown for the simple reason that if you're not a media company the overhead is very low - no need to have a dedicated space or even cameras beyond decent laptops. Burrow's End's puppetry? Critical Role's Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Crystal Palace did shadow puppets in 2019. They had diagetic audio on the main campaign as early as 2016. I don't even like Kollok, but that's had complex set design since 2019. Meanwhile premise of the article is yet another rehash of Polygon's "Dimension 20 is CHANGING THE GAME" constant drumbeat, while your actual pull quotes from Brennan Lee Mulligan are him musing that this is simply an entry in an ancient tradition of storytelling and isn't, in fact, terribly novel. The interview fails utterly to back up your point and indeed contradicts it; I get that the timeline was probably tight but this is outright incorrect in multiple places and your argument isn't just unsupported; it's outright dismissed by the very person you claim is proving it. If the premise came before the interview, it needed to be reworked afterwards, and if it came after the interview…I'm not sure what to say, really.

This isn't your article, and I'm putting it here to illustrate that this has been a pattern for Polygon's AP coverage specifically. This article about Worlds Beyond Number is perhaps my favorite example of "this is not serious journalism:" Rusty Quill Gaming, The Adventure Zone, Friends at the Table, and NADDPod are all theater of the mind long-running podcasts (RQG's campaign lasted a whopping 7 years of real time) and that's just off the top of my head; the idea of a long-running edited audio podcast being novel is laughable. RQG and TAZ both started at level 1; I'm not personally familiar with Friends at the Table. I don't actually think starting at level 1 vs. 2 is terribly important in storytelling in the first place other than that a few D&D classes pick their subclass at L2 and that choice can be narratively relevant, which it was in TAZ; however, some classes pick a subclass at L3 so you can still achieve this with a level 2 start (as Critical Role's second campaign does). Both Emily Axford of NADDPod and Griffin McElroy of TAZ have long been composing their own music and RQG is heavily sound designed. These are not obscure pulls, either; these are some of the more well-known names in the space.

At this point, Polygon AP/TTRPG articles - by multiple different writers - simply feel like madlibs: "(actual play show) is groundbreaking in its (thing that other shows have been doing for 5+ years); I especially liked (visual effect) and (incorrect understanding of TTRPG mechanics)."

The people I allude to in the post you responded to as having egregiously uncharitable and sanctimonious takes on Daggerheart (within, again, hours of its publication) are a frequent Polygon contributor and a Rascal editor and they further my mistrust of those publications: There is this constant insistence that everything they like be "groundbreaking" and "innovating" and they will claim this even when it's demonstrably not the case, as the above examples note. As Mulligan says in your article "it’s important to keep new artists with new experiences and backgrounds flowing in," and yet by focusing intensely on high production values (difficult for smaller indie upstarts to have) and by incorrectly claiming that a well-established media company within the space like D20 invented a number of things it flat out did not, this journalism is actively, if unintentionally, working against that goal. As I put it elsewhere, Polygon's bizarre pedestaling of Dimension 20 and simultaneous putdowns of Critical Role (which turn into wild contortions when D20 mainstays like Mulligan or Aabria Iyengar collaborate with CR; for that matter others besides me have observed that Polygon acts like Spenser Starke is two different people, the genius who created Alice is Missing and the knuckle-dragging moron who put out Candela Obscura and Daggerheart) coupled with the obsession with production values over story has the whiff of claiming they're the champion of the little guy for sticking it to the 700 lb gorilla in the space and then focusing on 500 lb gorillas while making it impossible for smaller monkeys to compete because most brand new shows without the name recognition of someone like Mulligan involved can't exactly hire Rick Perry to do their models or Taylor Moore to do sound design.

I suppose a good way to put this, since I've run into this in many spaces, not just AP/TTRPG or even journalism, is that bias on its own in a subjective medium isn't inherently bad; but if something is so nakedly biased against something I love, I will, naturally, turn to it with a far more critical eye, and if its arguments are not ironclad I'm going to start noticing every structural issue in every argument and every tiny mistake. Sure, as a fan of Critical Role, and as someone who feels that Kollok was nigh-unwatchable and that Burrow's End was promising in parts but deeply flawed, I disagreed with Polygon's nonstop mud-slinging towards the former and glowing, verging on fawning reviews of the latter two. But that's not entirely damning on its own; I do get that not everyone will like Critical Role and that some people will love Kollok or Burrow's End for valid reasons. What's damning is the journalism itself is riddled with factual errors and the analysis is so weak that to call the arguments a flimsy house of cards would be generous. The opposite is also true; if Polygon's lead editor were out here repeatedly misspelling the name of one of the main characters in Worlds Beyond Number (note: this has since been corrected) but the articles had compelling arguments, even ones I disagreed with, I'd be far more forgiving, but as is? It's offering me absolutely nothing: it's poorly researched, it's poorly structured, it's poorly written, it's poorly copy-edited, and it shits on things I like seemingly just for clicks. I'm done giving clicks.

I am deeply sympathetic to the pressures facing digital journalism and media and the arts in general; as someone who is fortunate enough not to personally face those pressures and has the income to be a patron, I would love to help in my small way (and I do, at least, financially support a number of the AP shows I love). But the quality of some of this journalism is truly so bad that I can't bring myself to support the institutions putting it out; it's "dead dove do not eat" until such time as someone whose analysis and opinions I do trust cites them (or, perhaps, until there is a sea change of lead editorship). I know that this won't help the crunch, and may make it worse, but I just can't because the quality is so poor. I don't have a good solution to how to write about something that takes a lot of time to watch and process and about which the articles pay very little in return, but the current strategy of bouncing between uninformed provocateur and utter sycophant depending on the show and creators; of drooling over such surface features as shiny production and falsely claiming everything is "groundbreaking" while getting the most basic facts wrong has driven me away.

[nadg-ttrpg]

Controversial opinion (?)

The magnus archive role playing game (TMARPG) is a good TTRPG. But it's not a good Magnus Archive TTRPG, it's a good TTRPG that happens to be set in a Magnus Archive universe. Hear me out. It's published by Monte Cook Games, using their Cypher System. The Cypher is a good system, used in hits like Numenera or The strange, but it's not adapted to play a Magnus Archive game. They tried really hard to make it work, and they made very interesting changes to the base system. From the health tracking making you more fragile to the eponymous Cyphers being more like abilities than magic objects like in other games. And honestly, yeah, it works! It's a great investigation game, cthulhu style, allowing you to play a crew of archival assistants or a similar group, trying to survive unspeakable horrors and maybe stop rituals. But. BUT.

Magnus Archives, the podcast, isn't just about the investigation. It's an office comedy, and a tragedy, and - most important to me - a reflection on morality, mortality and humanity. It's a podcast that, to quote a tumblr post I saw once, "spend the first 100 episodes showing you irredeemable inhuman monsters... and the 100 next asking you to change your mind on them by showing the protagonist is becoming one". It's a story talking of powers beyond human understanding, but mostly of the humans stuck with them. Asking how far you'll go for a taste of power, how far you'll go to survive, how far you'll go to protect the ones you love. Showing times and times again that getting the power you crave will divorce you from humanity, and that this pull is hard to resist. And that to stay somewhat human, you need anchors, friends, connections. And frankly, there is nothing in the TMARPG to encourage this kind of story. I agree, this is mostly a me problem. My standard is that when I play a licensed RPG I want the original story to be possible with the rules as written. Maybe this is too much to ask. I genuinely don't know. But it's the rule by which I judge a game. When I play an Alien TTRPG, I want the monster horror and the PC betrayals to be encouraged by the rules. When I play a Lord of the Ring TTRPG I want mechanics for travel, honor and temptation. When I play a My Little Pony TTRPG, I want the game to help me with the magic and the friendship. And when I play TMARPG, I'd like the rules to encourage the same themes as the podcast. I could do this freestyle with the rules as is, GM my way out of this, request the help of the players with their backstory and character arcs. Or I could turn to an other TTRPG. Enter Unknown Armies (UA), an occult game about broken people conspiring to fix a broken world - sounds familiar? It wasn't made with TMA in mind, it was published before the podcast even existed. It also have it's flaws, I heard it described as "taking itself too seriously" many times. But despite this, UA drinks at the same source than TMA.

They both embrace a Jungian philosophy gosh that sounds so pedantic, the idea that the collective unconscious of the humanity create archetypes, powers, Fears. They both feature relationships as both something that needs to be cared for and link to humanity. They both have heavy use of trauma and mental breakdown, depicted as realistically as possible. Actually, UA link them directly to your stats. Witnessed violence? You can react either by being hardened and unfazed by it, or traumatised and deeply troubled by it. This will make it either easier for you to fight, or to dodge. I love it. They both have a supernatural system where you can only get those powers by acting in ways that make you an outcast, be it by being an arsonist, someone living their life through a camera lens tape recorder anyone?, or even someone fascinated by the flesh and blood. They both have weird artifacts. They both have ways to become avatars. And you can actually have a power imbalance betwen the PCs! You can have an avatar and an "antechrist's plus one" is the same party. They are made for each other. TLDR: Unknown Armies is a better Magnus Archive TTRPG than The Magnus Archives Role Playing Game. TMARPG is a good TTRPG, but not a game that actually uses the themes of the podcast. If you want to play an investigation team cthulhu-style, by all mean, play TMARPG. If you want to play a tragedy about inhumanity and power, play Unknown Armies. The Magnus Archives is a podcast written by Jonathan Sims and distributed under a CC NC-SA-BY 4.0 license. Thanks for listening.

[fullbattleregalia]

Died for the first time in No Man’s Sky today. Got eaten by a tentacle monster. And then the game quoted Lovecraft at me.

@greentrickster told me that’s what I got for wearing my Cthulhu shirt today. 🤣

[s-che]

Dream Library: Night Witches

Last week (or, well — two weeks ago, this writeup has been a little delayed), the Dream Library’s little Office Hours RPG book club turned our flawless hearts and perfect minds to reading and playing Night Witches, Jason Morningstar’s 2015 Powered By The Apocalypse game about the 588th Night Bomber Regiment of the Soviet Air Forces, the all-woman regiment who flew continual nocturnal bombing runs over the invading German army between 1942 and 1945. We played over on Discord using a combination of physical and digital materials — including the free one-shot guide available on Bully Pulpit’s website — and, after starting a little bit slower than I would have liked, ended up playing for about four and a half hours. It was a great time.

All of that boring stuff out of the way, let’s talk about what we learned:

Night Witches revels in historical detail.

A recurring theme in the Dream Library’s sessions with these older PBTA titles has been their maximalism — the sense, which begins with Apocalypse World and lives on in more recent games like Under Hollow Hills — that the text of a game book is not just an efficient engine, but an object which you should be able to flip through for minutiae and inspiration. This is all downwind of what I talked about re: Barf Forth Apocalyptica in previous posts, of course, but it also stands directly in opposition to a tendency which bothers me in indie games. Many indie game designers (myself included!) have fallen into the trap of looking at bloated games like Dungeons and Dragons or Call of Cthulhu, getting frustrated with their inelegance, and deciding to make the most lightweight possible alternative. Some of this is also motivated by material concerns, of course — it’s easier to produce a one-pager or a zine than a book, especially if you’re working alone — but there’s a real way in which the dominant philosophy behind indie games has tended towards thinking smaller games are better simply by virtue of being smaller. Night Witches, like both Sagas of the Icelanders and Apocalypse World, follows another path: although the core mechanical engine is easy to understand, the book itself is chock full of extra shit that makes the option really lovely to read through. There’s information on the mechanical specifications of the 588th’s planes, queer histories, the timeline of the eastern front, quotes, illustrations, list of names — it goes on, and, frankly, makes the game better even if it’s also longer. It’s really nice to read a game that takes so much pleasure in its setting — which knows that you want more and gives you more. I hope that indie games can get back to looking more like this, as small publishers continue to grow.

Night Witches makes war an engine, not a playground 

One of the reasons I was particularly interested in playing Night Witches (in addition to the fact that the physical copy had been sitting on my shelf unplayed for a while), was the game’s famous (is it famous? or do I just spend too much time thinking about RPGs?) day/night system, wherein both the narrative and the basic moves are strongly delineated between what happens during the day (when you’re resting up, resupplying, and carrying on personal dramas at base) and the night (when you’re flying bombing runs over German targets). For those keeping count at home, this is also part of why Night Witches and Sagas of the Icelanders were pared together this month: Sagas, similarly, has a strong division between the thing men and women are allowed to do, which goes so deep as giving you different basic moves based on your assigned gender. As things turned out, though, that comparison may have been slightly off. Playing Night Witches and expecting the night (which is, after all, where the action happens) to be a phase of equal significance to the day nearly threw off our session’s timing altogether because — despite the fact that they each get their own sets of basic moves and their own expectations — night passes way quicker in this game than the day does. All it takes is two or three solid rolls (and there’s a much stricter scaffolding for how those roles are going to take place) to complete a mission and send you hurrying back home — and although the missions do have a way of going sideways there’s a sense in which those bitter, desperate, shot-down-behind-enemy lines stories are also abstracted by the rules of the game, allowing us to get back to what really matters: being lesbians at Pashkovskaya Airbase. 

In some ways, the actual bombing-nazis girlboss-in-planes chunk of this game feels more like Blades in the Dark’s downtime: i.e., it occupies a significant narrative role, taking up a major chunk of the character’s life, but exists mostly to provide mechanical feedback which will feed into the “main” action (next mission in Blades or the next day in Witches). Maybe I was just running things wrong, and things shouldn’t have felt so asymmetrical — but as things stood I loved the way it played. The war — our part in it, anyway — felt, appropriately, like this big dangerous invasive thing, threatening the community we were trying to build and putting us in danger, turning us against each other when things went south. The last twenty minutes of our session were taken up by an in-character argument back at the base, as a pair of exhausted soldiers turned on the only enemies they had close to hand — each other. Oh, and another player smoked a cigarette with a hot butch mechanic but that’s not important.

Actually that butch mechanic is important, because--

Night Witches is a game with no mechanical system for oppression 

The text of Night Witches is extremely clear about the fact that, if the historical misogyny and homophobia of the early 20th century (and, more specifically, the queer and feminist losses in the 30s in the Soviet Union) don’t sit well with your table, you can disregard them. The book contains overviews of what the institutional response might be to someone getting outed — state violence for men, medical violence for women — but they also encourage you to make your own decisions over whether or not you’ll involve any of this in your own game. I understand the value of having that kind of provision in the text, and of handing over agency to the players to determine their levels of comfort, but in the aftermath of playing a session of Sagas of the Icelanders and (separately from the Dream Library) quite a bit of Seven Part Pact, pulling this punch felt a little bit disappointing to me. My table was able to say yes to the things we were interested in seeing — and there was some casual misogyny in the game, although we didn’t go far into that — but part of me, when looking at a game about a specifically gendered experience of a specific moment in history, wishes that there had been some mechanical oomf to that, and not just an empty space that said something could or could not happen. Maybe I’m in the minority, there, but I would rather a game mechanize the nastiest parts of its setting — if only to give MCs and players clear guidelines on how the game expects us to deploy them.

Night Witches goes a different way, and... That’s fine. In the end, that’s just fine. Fine in an otherwise excellent game.

What’s Next?

Next month, the Dream Library moving on to a new unit on Monsters & monster-fucking with Avery Alder’s Monsterhearts. After that, Bluebeard’s Bride. After that — well...

I was going to have to play a World of Darkness game eventually.

If you’re reading along, thanks! There’ll be another session writeup coming soon. If you’d like to get in on these games and discussions, come do that! We’d love to have you.

[monstersdownthepath]

For the likes of Demon Lords or equivalents - you know, divine or semi-divine entities that have stat blocks - are there any instances where their Servants are 'stronger' than them, with like higher BAB or more spells or any other craziness that can result from High-level Characters, or Monsters w/ Class Levels? I put 'Stronger' in air quotes because there's a lot of different types of strength, and being well-rounded is pretty important. No matter how huge your stats, if you have 7 Int a Maze is gonna lock you out. Asking because I was looking at WotR and had an idea (well, just cribbing an idea from another setting tbh) of giving Baphomet's cult a 'Muscle'. The Lord of Minotaur's is strong to be sure, but his cults tends to be more cerebral - sometimes, you need to break things. So, here's this super-Minotaur born from an exemplar of their kind - big, huge, strong, and barely sapient - a perfect fighting servant, to be summoned to his cults as needed. I do say Super-Minotaur because I gave them the Advanced Template, Class Levels and courtesy of Baphomet, some Mythic Ranks. It *is* for WotR after all.

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Hmmm... Among fiends, such a thing is nearly unheard of, and the times it is heard of are often laughed mockingly about; making something stronger than yourself is a surefire way to be replaced by it, regardless of how that strength manifests (see: Lyutheria, the former Horseman of Famine). I personally can't find an example of this occurring among the fiendish demigods where it didn't end with the created servant supplanting their creator! The closest available approximate is the fact the physically diminutive and statistically underwhelming Barbatos is in many respects physically and magically inferior to Furcas, over whom he holds dominion.

In Baphomet's case specifically, he himself is more powerful than his own Labyrinth Minotaurs--their species his most successful creation--by every measurable metric.

Even among good demigods, I can't immediately find anything like the scenario you're describing! I suppose, if you wanted to stretch the search parameters a little, Talmandor exists; he serves no particular Empyreal Lord, though, and this specific detail allows him considerable freedom when interacting with mortals.

there's actually a reason for this in and out of universe, actually; look at the crafting rules for any Construct or the rules of creating just about any Undead, and you'll always notice that the Caster Level needed to make such minions exceeds the creature's CR considerably! "You need to be more powerful than the thing you're trying to make" is built into the rules of reality!

All that being said, there's literally nothing stopping you from making your living battering ram have 40 Str/34 Dex/40 Con with two dozen and change combat feats. Baphomet has the wealth and resources of whole worlds at his disposal and, more importantly, ways to stop such a creature from turning against him... and if he doesn't now, he's too cunning to craft such a being without an idiot-proof failsafe (such as a kill-switch only he can activate or a phrase only he knows). Maybe he keeps the thing Imprisoned until it's needed?

side side note/fun fact I found out while digging around for a way to answer this ask: did you know the highest Str in the game (56) belongs to Cthulhu?

[arkham-outskirts]

PAPER CHASE

! SPOILERS for the scenario contained within the Call of Cthulhu: Starter Kit, Paper Chase !

Below the cut will be various out of context quotes, summaries and art relating to our very first gaming session/scenario!

Also, I will warn: There's a bit more suggestive humor in this campaign then Alone Against the Flames...

GM/Keeper: @jackgiggles Player 1, Nadine Greenwald: @thevioletscout Player 2, Louis Milch: @atorchzagreusandtris

Pre-Game Stuff

Jack: I cannot wait to show you guys, each others characters *laughing in "what we have done"*

(Talking about the fact we didn't know what Louis looked like yet, compared to knowing TOO MUCH about Pepper) Scout: I got something, Very out of pocket. Scout: Tri, are you okay with this? Tri: Yes. Scout: It's not like I've seen, with my own eyes, Jack gave Pepper a big dick.

Jack, putting Pepper's ref in chat: This is the boy. Tri: Oh he's nice! Jack: Yea, he's nice ^^ Tri: Nice with uhh, a big ding dong. Jack: -whEEZE-

---

Jack: So Tri, do you want to explain to Scout, who your character is? Tri: I'll take a hard boiled egg, why not. Uhhhh *laughing* Tri: SO! This all kinda started as a joke, because the first thing I came up with; Is my character was going to be a Milkman. Scout: .... Alright. Tri: BUT- But it gets *can't stop laughing* Jack and Tri: *dying, can't speak* Tri: His entire thing, revolves around M i l k. His last name is Milch, Jack: German for Milk Tri: -yeah, and his name, Louis, comes from the guy who invented pasteurized milk.

Tri: BUT THE COMPANY- what did we call it?? Mommy milk-? Jack, dying: MILLA or something?? -My dogs are barking in the background- Jack and Tri: MOMMY MILLA MILK COMPANY

Tri: And his dad disappeared to go get milk, and that's why he chose his profession! Jack: I'm getting the meme I made of him.

Scout, realizing what the fuck we did: WHAT THE HELL??? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN??

---

And Louis is also apart of underground fighting rings, alike boxing, for extra money on the side.

Scout: Alright.............. I think I heard enough.

---

Scout, introducing her character: My character is Nadine Greenwald, she's a dancer at a Speakeasy. And uh, small town girl trying to make it big in the city! Tri: Oh, sweet! Scout: She likes to believe ignorance is bliss, but can't ignore when someone needs help.

---

Nice and calm introduction.

---

Jack: So Scout has the serious character, and Tri is bringing the memes. And we love it. Tri: THIS ALWAYS HAPPENS!!

---

Now Starting... The Actual Campaign

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It is 1929, July when Nadine Greenwald and Louis Milch are contacted by Thomas Kimball, a resident in a small, overgrown town down south from Arkham City called Windleigh. He deemed them the most trustworthy individuals to handle a case due to a quiet town having a lazy sheriff who was no help for a strange theft.

---

GM(Jack): Tri- or Louis, you are very well familiar with the place because it's on your track to... deliver your milk. Louis(Tri): *laugh* GM: You're familiar with the neighborhood, and recognize the new face of Thomas who moved in recently after the passing of his uncle, Douglas Kimball.

---

The town is very overgrown and clearly, it's dying out with the passing years. Most residents are elderly. The Kimball Residence is pretty rundown, and full of moving boxes and such messes expected from such a move.

Thomas goes on to invite them in, and explain what had happened.

"You see, I went into my uncle's study this morning and saw that the window was opened, and some books were clearly missing. History textbooks, some novels- I don't know what specifically, since the library isn't all that well organized. But the sheriff was no help, and while there were footprints they were so muddled in the investigation from sloppy work they're of no use.

"And, they wound up causing more trouble then what was worth calling them for, as they broke one of my statues..."

---

Nadine (Scout), ooc: This is a weird question, but does he still have the statue? Thomas, (GM): I put it in a box, I think I can get it fixed. It's just one of my own...... cat states. It- it was my grandmothers, you see? Nadine, trying to see if it was lore related: O h

---

Thomas asks them to find clues as to who taken them, and for what purpose. Then, he tacts on basically an optional mission for questions he never really had the chance to be answered.

---

Thomas: It's perhaps foolish, but- if you could find anything of my uncle, it would be appreciated.

Nadine: Do you have any ideas of suspects? Thomas: Hmm... I'm not quite sure. I've only been here for a month, and the only one to cross me was that damn Sheriff. Everyone else, was pleasant... from what I've seen.

---

Thomas lends rooming for the two while they stay and investigate around Windleigh, since he wasn't going to force the two to pay for housing doing a job for him!

---

GM: You can tell Thomas is more of a secluded, artsy kinda person. Not great with social interactions... GM: This is also me being very awkward about roleplaying someone! *laughter* GM: I have also joked that this is Thomas eyeing the man. Louis, ooc: OH okay! I get it!

---

Nadine: She like, offers a comforting hand on his shoulder. Louis: Louis- he offers the man a bottle of milk. Thomas: UH no- no thanks, I am rather lactose intolerant! Louis, ooc: He mistook the eyeing as "He wants some milk!" GM: Oh a himbo, Thomas has his work cut out for him! Nadine, ooc: *head in hands* Oh god, it's Pepper and Jo all over again.

---

Nadine, to the rescue: SO could you tell us more about the missing books? Thomas, ooc: Thomas is VERY glad for the change of topic, and goes on to explain what is in the library!

---

Nadine and Louis first start investigating the library-study, mostly full of historical documents, texts and random novels. However, they do see a few more... unusual books, with strange covers. They are occult, as Douglas was a man who taught at Miskatonic University.

Unfortunately, neither recognize any of the tomes. However, due to Nadine's work in Arkham, she knew there were odd subjects and ideas circling the cities University, so it wasn't too unusual for a professor to have such texts.

Louis goes to investigate the window, of which is cracked open. Dust was unsettled, showing it wasn't opened often. Thus being the point of entry. And- dried mud or dirt around the windowsill. Like someone climbed in.

Upon a spot hidden, they search around and discover a handwritten dairy. It was very cursive handwriting, obviously belonging to Douglas Kimball. As they flip through it, they take notice of the fact the quality of the handwriting and grammar dramatically decreasing as it goes on. Such a thing being concerning, for a retired professor.

---

Scout: I'm gonna go turn my light on, it's getting dark out Jack, reading notes: Hehe ~Spooky~

---

Douglas' journal mentions something about "making a decision", "joining my friends below" and something about a "creature".

---

Louis: Probably a possum or somethin' -laughter- Nadine, ooc: I'm curious, what is his Intelligence stat? Louis, ooc: .... GM: I will say, you made him strong and charming, but he's not the sharpest tool in the shed. Louis, ooc: His Intelligence is 50 and 40 Education. Nadine, ooc: Nadine's not much better, she has 55 in both. Very pretty, but not very bright. GM: Himbo and bimbo.

---

Louis: I don't think it could be an older person that climbed through a window. Nadine: You'd be surprise, but I'm not pinning suspects yet.

---

They ask around Windleigh, and run across an elderly man who kinda fills in about Douglas and the Kimball family. He explains Douglas was more of a reclusive person in town, always reading. So nobody really knew the Kimballs, but the kid...

Small Girl: He's just really weird! He gave me a bad feeling, especially recently... Nadine: .... What do you mean by that? Small girl: I don't know, he's just weird! He's always on his own, at the graveyard! Who does that?? Louis: Uhh yeah-

The old man patted the girl on the head, and kinda shrugged it off while slightly scolding the girl, "Abigail, that is rude, you can't just call people weird." and excuses himself.

---

GM: If you would like to talk to the older, glamorous lady, make a Appearance or Credit Rating roll. Nadine, ooc: Nadine has a... 60 in appearance. Louis, ooc: Mine's a 70! GM: Alright, roll!

Louis, ooc: 90 Nadine, ooc: 75, I'm over. GM: R i g h t, so the lady- Lady O’Dell, does not want to hear what you have to say. And kinda- uses her parasol to kinda shy away from you and block sight like "Ohhh no, please go!" Louis, ooc: -whEEZE- Alright, to the graveyard then!

---

Lady O'Dell smelled the poor on them.

---

GM: The graveyard is behind the Kimball home, and kinda uphill with a lot of overgrown roots along the cobblestone. Nadine, ooc: Nadine is wearing h e e l s GM: oof, yeah good luck Nadine Louis, ooc: And Louis is carrying his- bucket of milk. Nadine: Not gonna help a lady, got it!

GM: and there are a bunch of... uhhh. What are those buildings that hold like, urns n stuff? Louis, ooc: Uhh I wanna say mausoleums-?? Or- GM: Mausoleums! Louis: Ah, yeah!

---

The gaveyard is very old, with stone overgrown and worn down. There didn't seem to be much room left for anyone else to be buried.

There is the graveyard keeper, a very old and grouchy old man. His hair was once red, but now greyed at his temples and roots. He was very haggard.

---

GM: Roll for Charm, or which ever is highest. Cause he's grouchy. Nadine, ooc: I got 91, I'm shit outta luck.

---

Louis however passes his charm roll, so he walks up to the caretaker, Jefferson. Louis being his usual charming milkman self, manages to bring out the better parts of Jefferson to ask about what he might know about the Kimball House. Jefferson appears as if he's familiar with the place.

And it's shown, he's actually quite friendly with Douglas. Probably kindred spirits in a way, being a grouchy groundskeeper and a reclusive bookworm.

---

Jefferson (GM): It's unfortunate, the house is- has been gone off- in a- for an- in- *sputters* GM: I'm having a stroke.

---

Jefferson divulges in the fact they enjoyed each other presence, and talked very casually. A nice, calm friendship between two old guys. Plants, the weather, all those sorts of things.

---

Jefferson: And it's strange, Douglas always had this strange... fascination, or draw, with this one tombstone. Nadine and Louis: Hmmm... Jefferson: He'd always go there to read.

Nadine: Where is this tombstone? Jefferson: Oh, its one of the oldest ones nearby the mausoleum, the first one. Actually pretty close to the Kimball House.

---

Louis thanks Jefferson for the information, though it's noted that Jefferson seems to grow more anxious- and glancing towards the shadows, edging away from them.

---

Nadine, occ: I got 25, and my spot hidden is 35. Perspective gal! ... So far.

---

Nadine eventually notices that while Jefferson is trying to edge out of the conversation, being kinda twitchy, she notices there's an odd shape in his coat. Looking at his pocket, she could see the glimmer of a brown bottle. (Booze)

---

Nadine, ooc: I guess he's drinking...? GM: Note, prohibition is still in effect. Nadine, ooc: Nadine could give Less of a shit, she works in a speakeasy!

---

Nadine doesn't mention it, given the fact they had some sort of lead.

---

Louis, ooc: Of course, because it's customary for Louis, he offers Jefferson a bottle of milk. GM: -wheezing- Jefferson waves him away, "No, no- we got some already- thanks"

---

GM: I will say- you should continue with graveyard later. Because there's plenty of stuff to see Before then. GM: I learned this with my parents, who finished this EARLY.

---

Nadine, ooc: That tombstone ain't goin' anywhere. Louis, ooc: Watch us be Wrong. -laughter-

---

*they agree to go to the library next* Louis, ooc: Time to go read books!

GM: Also I will shoehorn you into every location, cause I am proud of them.

---

Louis is rather familiar with Windleigh, and it's a very small town so they find the Library easily. The library is quite small, one story and perhaps just 3 rooms maximum. It's ran by one person at the moment, a petite blonde woman, who's hair is actually white is so blonde.

---

Louis: We're looking for some recently donated books? Librarian [GM]: Ohh, we hadn't had anything new. We've been told from Thomas we might receive some of of his uncle's old collection, but nothing yet, I'm afraid.

Nadine, ooc: I got a 42- Nadine doesn't go to the library often. GM: Nope, apparently not. Louis, ooc: 20 percent... and I rolled a 6. GM: A 6?? Damn-

---

Either by shear luck or divine intervention, Louis finds an old newspaper article, badly damaged and from roughly 10 years ago. Very odd for it's condition- faded and hard to read.

(Here's to my first handmade handout.)

---

GM: You can't really tell much else, besides that it was printed by the Arkham Gazette.

---

Nadine, ooc: Maybe I'm- peeking over his Very broad shoulders. -laughter-

Louis, ooc: He's like- average height? GM: Like, 5'10. But he's very broad. Louis, ooc: He's VERY Broad. GM: A broad, if you will.

---

The librarian kinda freaks out when they picked it up, saying that the place was just very unkempt by the previous owner for whatever reason, and it was very delicate. She then informs them that, as she takes it away, if they're looking for a more intact copy there might be one at the Arkham Gazette.

Librarian: I have a cousin who works there, he'd be most glad to let you look around. Nadine, ooc, realizing: Ohhhh I know who this woman is. GM: heh, snow white hair?

Debra: I'm Debra Snow, if you give a man "Jo Winters" my name, I'm sure he'll let you investigate. 'cause he's more nosy then he should be about this kind of stuff.

---

Nadine tried rolling for Psychology to see if she could trust her, and upon failing decided to just go for it and explained why they were looking into things, about the break-in and the books.

Debra is surprised, and mentions she's met the man once since moving to Windleigh. That Douglas was only announced dead because there was zero trace.

---

Nadine: That's certainly unfortunate... Louis: Yes, indeed......... Would you like some milk?? -LAUGHTER- GM: Debra is taken aback, and goes ".... UHH. SURE??"

Nadine, ooc: She likes gets behind him, and mouths to her "sorry, he does this all the time"

---

Quick intermission, but there was discussion of how Louis and Nadine knew each other, since they really easily slipped into a dynamic like casual friendship. Likely just Louis delivering and they talked enough to have bonded.

---

Nadine: I guess uh- I'm kinda interested in going back to Arkham to check out the Gazette. Louis: I would sugge- *discord cuts out on Scout's end* Nadine, ooc: .... Tri where'd you go??

---

Louis, ooc: Hop into my milk van!

---

GM: Every time I say Arkham, I just think- Batman. Louis, ooc: SAME-

---

Part 2: [LINK]

[inkdemonapologist]

A buncha scribbles from session 15 of the BatIM Cthulhu game! including:

Prophet swapped Sammy in for a brief moment of awareness before the final ritual to release the muses, in which he was relieved to see Susie okay and Susie was glad to see him... back to normal! Oh geez. Sammy doesn't actually know what Prophet's interactions with Susie were, but he's sure he probably regrets them

Susie hummed a little bit of a new version of one of the Bendy songs Sammy had been working on and oH YEAH THATS RIGHT SHE'S STILL KIND OF POSSESSED,

Back when the Coney Island ride they were underneath was flooding, I specified that Prophet was going to climb up the stairs "on all fours" to minimise chances of slipping and falling and I just wanted to try to draw this lmao. i forgot he was wearing a vest here

with Joey exhausted, Allison was the only one who could conduct the final ritual, and Sammy ended up calling out Prophet to keep an eye on her. i was just way too amused by the idea of sammy just TAKING A SWIG OF INK WITHOUT BREAKING EYE CONTACT TO DO THIS

also in addition to me drawing just so many scribbles of sammy lawrence i DO have some out-of-context quotes for you!!

[Sammy is played by me, Joey is played by Boo (inkyvendingmachine), Henry is played by Maf (inkcryptid), Jack is played by Mochi (whatyouwantedmetosee) and Thren (haunted-hijinxer) is our GM!]

[GM] It kind of jolts, and turns – assumedly – towards you, [Sammy] *laughs* YOU CAN’T TELL which direction it’s looking in, just, IT HAS MOVED

[GM] And some tentacles are gonna come at you guys! Like they do. [Jack] #JustTentacleThings

[Joey] This IS Joey’s arm, which means if it does get destroyed by the circle, Joey’s going to be missing an arm…! [Jack] I can fix it, it’s fine, [GM] It’s fine! Yeah! [Sammy] How many limbs would you like to be made of ink, Joey Drew?! [Joey] I dunno if he’s gonna have a CHOICE! [Sammy] You’re going to have fewer working limbs than Moonlight.

[Sammy] These guys might all be those goop people, who are harder to fight than humans – [Henry] I don’t think Henry’s thinking about that. I think Henry just heard Bendy and Joey scream and is in Go Mode. [Sammy] Well-- [Henry] I mean, it’s a smart thought! I don’t think Henry’s having it right now.

[Sammy] Leon, if you want to surprise us all and do something really heroic, PLEASE go for it [Jack] I thought you were going to say “please DON’T” [GM] “Don’t be a hero!!” [Sammy] No no, I think it’s fine, if he wants to be a hero, I think he should do it. [Joey] I mean, if he wants to grab Colette and RUN, that would be great, [Sammy] Yeah, nobody can DRAIN INK out of HIM! [Jack] Unless we’re about to learn something,

[Sammy] No, wait, that was Colette’s parents. I can keep all my minor NPCs straight! [Jack] Straight? In this campaign?! [Sammy] *startled laugh* [GM] Tell me about it…! [Sammy] We can’t keep ANY of our NPCs straight! We’re fundamentally terrible at it.

[Jack] I’m imagining it like, you know when you try to use an item in the wrong place in pokemon? [Joey] THE MASKED MESSENGER SAYS: IT ISN’T THE TIME TO USE THAT!

[Joey] Hold on. I was going between two normal ideas, and then I had a really weird one, so I need to check something. [GM] Joey? Making bad decisions in the finale of a scenario? What a thought! [Joey] hIS SANITY IS NINETEEN, SO!!!!

[Joey] Okay. I have an idea. >:3 [Sammy] Oh NO. [Henry] Oh no. Have you got a Joey Plan™? [Joey] *cackling* [Sammy] *muttering under breath* We really should’ve just… waited for Henry…

[Joey] Joey is going to realise the ink is being siphoned from them for use in whatever this guy is trying to do, and he’s not pleased about that, [Sammy] Yeah, neither am I. So far we’re on the same page – [Joey] It’s HIS ink–! [Sammy] It, it’s not – okay. [Joey] So, remember when Joey was visited by the Masked Messenger, and they had the little battle over ink possession? Joey is going to take over the Ink in the circle -- [Sammy] OKAY! This SURE is a Joey Drew™ Plan, [Joey] -- and reclaim it for himself, and take over the magic! [Sammy] Well, the LAST time we had a circle dedicated to doing something with the Yellow King, and Joey switched it to be himself instead, that went SO well, why WOULDN’T you do the same thing again!! [Joey] Listen, he has 19 sanity, I don’t know what you’re expecting from him. *rolls* …….He has 18 sanity, I don’t know what you’re expecting from him!

[Henry] Henry is going to shove the blade of his axe against this guy’s throat and tell him if he does anything fishy, he’ll kill him. [Joey] (This includes turning into a fish.) [Joey] (No more tentacle monsters, no more fish monsters, none of that!)

[Henry] 32, which is a hard success. [Sammy] …What’s your intimidate skill?!? [GM] Oh, y’know, :) [Henry] 85. [Sammy] *nervous laughter???* [Jack] Normal amount. [Henry] Normal amount! [Sammy] YEAH, the same number as Sammy’s musical skill??? OKAY COOL!!!

[Sammy] Does Sammy look like his mascara is running? I just want to know.

[Joey] Can I… *quietly* ...grab Colette and toss her out of the circle? [Sammy] … YEET HER? [Joey] yEAH,,, [Henry] Can’t be more damage than falling over a fence. *everyone giggles except for Sammy* [Sammy] …Okay.

[Sammy] I can’t believe Joey is stealing Prophet’s nemesis. Rude. [GM] I mean, Joey DID stab Moonlight. They can share! [Joey] …I don’t know if they can share. They’ve been doing very bad at sharing.

[Jack] Also she’s not an ink creature, so, big win for you, Leon!

[Sammy] It grabbed me in the leg, right? [GM] Yeah! This is the cool leg scar. [GM] Not to be confused with the not-cool leg scar, [Jack] He’s just never going to live that down, huh. [Sammy] He COULD, if everyone would stop bringing it up! [GM] Sammy wakes up and hopes dearly that Prophet tripped over a fence so at least it’s both of them, but no…

[Joey] So – hold on, let me see if a thing existed back then. [GM] Oh boy…? [Joey] 18th century. Great! Okay, so I’m going to drain the rest of my magic points, to do a new toon action – you know those, circular saw blades? [GM] BUZZSAWS???

[Henry] Henry’s gonna do something suuuuuper risky,,, [Henry] He’s going to drop the axe and summon the scythe. [Sammy] ….OKAY, [Joey] Okay…! I’m very curious what’s going to happen if Henry uses the scythe on the mirror. [Henry] Oh, I wasn’t thinking that. [Sammy] UM, [GM] This is fine, this is great! [Sammy] Nervous chuckle, I’m in danger, [Henry] Henry is going to say “Sammy, duck!” and, swing the scythe [Sammy] OH, OKAY, I WILL DO THAT, [GM] Make a dodge roll! [Sammy] OhhhHHH THAT’S NOT GOOD… THAT’S NICE, BUT IT’S NOT GOOD,,,, My dodge is 55 and I rolled a 69, [Joey] Nice [GM] Nice! [Henry] And since it’s in close quarters, I’m guessing it’ll go through both of them. [GM] Yeah! Roll damage! [Sammy] CAN I,,,, PUSH THAT ROLL MAYBE,,, [GM] [GM] No. :) [Henry] *cackles*

[Jack] THAT’S trauma for future Sammy!!

[Jack] He’s gonna see if Sammy’s okay! See what’s going on. [Sammy] Sammy still looks pretty shaken up, and will tell him, “Stay back my sheep – I will join you soon.” [Henry] “I’m not going to hurt him!” [Sammy] jUST GIVES HENRY A LOOK,

[Sammy] So that’s seven damage! [GM] Okay! You see that the shadowy figure on the other side is ALSO trying to hit the mirror. [Sammy] Huh. Can I tell anything about the shadowy figure, now that I’m right up next to the mirror? [GM] Yeah! :) Uh, looks kinda familiar. It’s maybe somebody you’ve seen before. [Jack] yEAH I thought it might be,,, [Sammy] …wait, what? [GM] Maybe somebody… last scenario… [Jack] Who’s in Carcosa… and wants to break the mirror… [GM] Yeah, someone like that maybe! [Sammy] ………….. Is it… is it Moonlight…? [GM] Yeah! Yeah it is! ...Anyway, the mirror breaks. :)

*successful dexterity check to avoid getting knocked over* [GM] Okay, you keep your feet! [Sammy] Thanks, I like my feet.

[Joey] Joey is going to start scanning for his people, who LEFT HIM while he was being thrown around by tentacles, [Sammy] You were a great distraction, thank you. [Jack] You’ve gotta keep a better eye on your people, one of them just stabbed another! [Joey] EVERYONE ABANDONED ME! [Sammy] I TOLD YOU WHAT I WAS DOING! [Joey] Oh, yeah, no, Prophet gets a pass. Everyone else ran off, and – [Henry] YOU LEFT HENRY! [Joey] ….eh, ‘strue. [Joey] …Left Henry with others! [GM] Bendy’s still there! [Joey] Yeah. Bendy’s got me. [Sammy] Joey, any time he’s trying to leave by himself: “No, I’m never alone, I’m with Bendy!” Joey, as soon as we figure he’s fine, because he’s with Bendy: “HOW COULD YOU LEAVE ME ALL ALONE?!” [Jack] Betrayed, Abandoned,

[Joey] And the water is coming in fast, [Henry] These people are going to have SUCH a mold problem when we’re done…

[Joey] Does Bendy have any magic points…? [Sammy] “I spent all of mine turning my arms into buzzsaws!” [Jack] As you do!

[Sammy] Poor Leon. I’m so sorry. You’re going to have to go straight into an asylum.

[GM] You’re pretty sure you’re not in Carcosa. [Jack] Okay, good. I needed to know if Jack would be panicking about things… [GM] He’s got plenty to panic about, but that one is currently good!

[GM] I wonder if Sammy… from Sammy’s point of view, Jack was driving when he lost consciousness, and then he’s still driving when he comes back! Like… he doesn’t even know they went to Coney Island, I don’t think? [Sammy] No, I guess not! Joey was just like “I know where they’re taking Colette” [Sammy] And now we’re going back to the Studio so it’s like, I guess we got Colette! And got wet, for some reason! [Jack] At least he didn’t end up seeing The Great Bertrum Piedmont. [Sammy] There are SO many things it’s good that he didn’t end up seeing.

[GM] Bendy is going to chime in that it was busy, but they went to an amusement park! [Joey] Joey’s going to correct him that they did NOT go to an amusement park. That was not what that is. [GM, as Bendy] “That’s what you said it was last time we went!” [Joey] “Was it like last time we went?!” [GM] He’ll think about that, go quiet for a minute, and then be like, “No, I guess not, huh!” [Joey] “EXACTLY.” [GM, as Bendy] “Yeah, he’s right, we didn’t!” [Sammy] Hm. Hmmmm. Sammy’s squinting at you both.

[Sammy] He might still cough up blood, just not embarrassingly so. Just, in a cool way!

[Henry] Henry will… “pull” is too strong of a word? But Henry will… physically encourage Joey to step back from the circle.

[Sammy] Ehhhhh, I don’t have a lot of hitpoints… [Joey] Who needs hitpoints? [Sammy] I do, I need them!!

[GM] *rolls* …hm. *mumbling to self* What do I do with that…? [Sammy] Troubling reaction! [GM] ….huh…. [Joey] Not getting less troubling!

[Henry] I don’t want to keep using the scythe spell, but it keeps presenting itself as the best option! [Joey] DO YOU HAVE, ANY OTHER OPTIONS,, FIRST???? [Henry] These things have a bajillion HP! [Sammy] I mean, you COULD do the scythe thing, but maybe don’t hit anybody else with it! [Jack] I think you should hit Sammy with it again. [Sammy] NO I DON’T THINK YOU SHOULD

[Henry] Well, my strength is higher… oh no, it’s not, I’ve been doing too much mAGIC, [Sammy] That’s what happens when you do the scythe spell constantly!!! [Henry] Uggghhhhhhh... [Sammy] “Been doing too much scythe spell, better do some more scythe spell!”

[Joey] Do we have any bonus dice left? [Sammy] *sarcastically* Well! If we end up at the hotel, I DID scout it out ahead of time!

[GM] And Joey is feeling all the way better, except for all the ways that he is not!

[Henry] I just want to say, I did not expect Weird Henry to go on for FOUR SESSIONS. [Sammy] He went out with a bang, too, sliced a scythe RIGHT THROUGH THE PROPHET, [Henry] Yeah, everything has been working out so great!

[purity-town]

Wasn’t feeling well yesterday so this is a bit late, but ask & submission responses are below the cut!

Hey now anon, that quote isn’t actually my doing, it’s in the game!

(Side note, I’ve significantly toned down the frequency in Purity Town from “multiple times a week” down to “it doesn’t happen too often, but it is frequent enough for the Nurse to notice the pattern.”)

Vaguely, yes! His tattoo includes the sun, a star, and the moon, notable as the celestial bodies and sources of magic. It has more personal meaning to him rather than just being a “Terraria-Cthulhu” tattoo, though.

Okay, so!

I don’t actually have an answer for how Andrew died the first time. He’s died a lot of times over the years, but I’m not sure if he stayed alive for long enough the first time to naturally realize something was up re: no longer aging or his mother/stepfather telling him what they knew from the Dryad, or if he figured it out later.

The revival was probably unexpected, but something that made sense in hindsight. Back when Andrew was born, Terraria was still weak; it was a very big deal that she had sealed away most of the spirits in Hell and created the first Guides. So revival wasn’t really a thing, even if there were still legends of a time when Dryads walked the Earth and Terraria revived heroes who had wrongly perished.

But Andrew wouldn’t be very effective if he were dead, so alive he shall be.

I think he could use a hug.

Still quite uncommon for people to be revived; Terraria’s will is a finnicky thing (outside of Andrew and the Dryad, who would always be revived). Terraria is not limitlessly powerful even in the modern day, with the threat of Moonlord looming and most magic locked away.

It definitely happens more than it did, at least, especially when it’s necessary to righting a wrong/restoring balance, and people can and do hope Terraria will intervene in a death that should not have occurred, but it’s not something to count on.

Chris is...kind of a special case, but it’s less about him necessarily and more that things are starting to reach their breaking point, it’s now or never, and if this hero dies there may not be another one to take his place.

Chris will never be jumping into lava to teleport home, though, haha.

We’ll actually be revisiting that scene later this chapter!

Who says Andrew will tell Chris?

.........He went to the doctor. He’s okay !!

In-comic, while their bond with each other will be very important to how they interact throughout the plot, there will never be an explicitly romantic scene between them, in the sense of dramatic confessions or anything of the likes. What matters more is how they care for each other and interact with external pressures, and that can totally be romantic or platonic!

That said, ultimately, this is a Terraria fancomic that I make for fun, so like...if you want to ship them, cool! Have fun with it! If you don’t like that sort of pairing, that’s cool too! There are plenty of fun Terraria ships I enjoy and some will be a little more direct in the comic while most are just me having fun and will have no bearing on the comic itself. Heck, I’ve mentioned before that I play Chris in a D&D campaign, and Andrew is literally “Chris’ weird religious partner” in his backstory of that game, which obviously should not be taken as any confirmation or denial of anything in the Purity Town comic proper. I do things for fun and you can too.

So...do as you please! They were always meant to have a close bond, and you can interpret that however you like, but I don’t plan for it to be direct whichever way in-comic.

Thanks!! I’m not always in a good position to add the little background details like that, but when I am, I have a good time with it. Andrew’s house especially is fun as it’s a weird mix of “things left by the previous owner” and “random housewarming gifts.” Andrew doesn’t have too many personal decorations!

👀!

The better question is “how much gear am I capable of drawing?”

In all seriousness, I definitely want him to get some fun new gear (I promise he won’t be in a normal shirt/pants/shoes and homemade cloak combo forever). I won’t be including everything, just stuff that makes sense for his build and will visually work well in the comic, but I’m excited for him to get some upgrades!

-------------------------

Last bit is a submission that made me smile! I wasn’t sure how to go about formatting/posting it, so I decided to add it in with the asks. Credit to @wingedcatgirl​ ! Thank you for the sticker :D

“found your comic yesterday through your... fanfics?? they're not really fanfics since you wrote purity town in the first place but they also are terraria fanfics... found your comic yesterday through the text you've posted on ao3, let's go with that

anyway this one panel was fucking hilarious so here have a discord sticker of it“

[denofimagination-blog]

Ready for the Board Games! Gatefall Deluxe Edition and Cthulhu Death May Die!!!

Write to service@denofimagination.com to get a quote!

[pruning-the-minds-garden]

Harry Potter and JK Rowling

Before we get started -

What this post is: a relatively brief run-down with examples of what I have personally dealt with, thought about, and where my ethical/moral compass is regarding this in March 2023.

What this post isn't: a comprehensive discussion of why JK Rowling is considered what she very clearly is.

I'm also going to put a Read More, because a lot of trans people are just fucking tired of talking and reading about this and it's okay if you aren't in the right brain space to deal with this at all.

Introduction

If you still like Harry Potter, if you still get good childhood feels from the world or the fandom, if you like to read fanfiction or post GIFs or quote from the series off the cuff... that's fine. At least, that's fine to me. Your feelings are not inherently an attack on anyone, nor do you need to change them. However, if you materially support the IP - and JK Rowling herself by extension - then you have gone from "I like the way Chick-fil-A tastes" to "I eat at Chick-fil-A" and you need to deal with the ethics of that. If you choose not to care ("no ethical consumption under capitalism, therefore I'll consume what I like without concern for the consequences"), that also is your choice, but I think it's a choice many can and will - and IMO are right to - judge you for. You could make other choices, but you've chosen to make that one, and I think it exists in the realm of things for which a person can be judged.

There are four instructive examples I can think of for this, each illustrating a different part of the basic argument I made above. I'll follow that up with a broader discussion to bring it home.

Example 1: HP Lovecraft / The Cthulhu Mythos

This is an objectively cool mythos and world. Yeah there are parts that are lifted from others, but it is damn neat for those who like subtle, creepy, otherworldly horror and want to inject some hentai-adjacent elements into their fiction.

That said, HP Lovecraft - the author and creator of the whole thing - was a huuuuuuuuuuuuge racist. He wasn't subtle about it, nor ambivalent, nor conflicted - he was just a racist. If you read the source material at all, some of that comes through (the frequency of discussion of "Negroid, Mongoloid and Caucasoid" 'types' just as an easy example, along with the portrayal of native people and non-Christian spiritual practice), but you can create and consume derivative works ("Lovecraft Country," for example) that do not contain or highlight, or that even subvert, those elements. However, some do. You need to be aware of that and watch what you consume, so that you aren't - advertently or inadvertently - supporting white supremacists.

Also HP Lovecraft is, himself, dead. Whenever you consume work in his IP you are not necessarily handing him a few cents of royalties of every dollar legitimately spent.

So, by this point, as long as you aren't consuming the racist parts of the Cthulhu Mythos because they are racist, or doing so blind to their racism, but are choosing instead those derivative works that are better... then I think that's fine.

Example 2: Orson Scott Card / Ender's Game

I think it's safe to say that Orson Scott Card has some, at the very least, controversial views. He voted for Trump in 2016. He thinks Barack Obama is morally equivalent to Adolf Hitler. His writings have been seen as homophobic, and his views as similar to that. He's against same-sex marriage, even now. He grew up in the LDS (Mormon) church and still actively associates with them, meaning that he donates a percentage of his income to the church and a portion of that goes to lobbying efforts for conservative causes and political candidates, as well as supporting a massive and untaxed corporation masking itself as a church. And, as of this writing, he's still alive.

If you buy or consume anything official in that IP, which he still has rights to, you are supporting him and those causes. Utah - largely run by the Mormon church - just outlawed gender-affirming health care for trans youth. Although he did not earn backend profits from ticket sales of "Ender's Game" the success of that movie was still going to determine the marketability of the rest of the IP to movie studios. However, he still makes money from book sales. So, if you buy "Ender's Game" or another of his books new off of Amazon, you are giving him money.

Should you? I don't think you should. Go buy second-hand instead, or something else that won't profit him.

Example 3: Chick-Fil-A

Dan Cathy and Chick-fil-A contribute, and continue to contribute, to social causes that are conservative, anti-LGBT, and dedicated to a theocratic vision of America dominated by Evangelical spiritual practices made manifest as government policy. If you go there to buy a chicken sandwich, you are giving their foundation, and those causes, money.

And, there are other chicken places. Whether you think they are "better" is a matter of taste (I prefer Popeye's), but the undeniable fact is that they exist. However, there are some situations where that is not available. For example -

Back in 2002, when I was in college, the only edible on-campus restaurant at a price I could was Chick-fil-A. At the time I didn't know what I was contributing to, but if I did I still might have eaten there some days because it was the only acceptable option. There are many others who live in analogous situations, whether on a campus or in a food dessert. However, now that I know, I choose other restaurants whenever I am able. Chick-fil-A is a food of last resort.

When others have bought Chick-fil-A for me, I've opted to not eat it. Now that I know their legacy, I cannot contribute to that and the only way to get through to people who'd buy it for you anyway despite knowing the aforementioned is to waste their money by not eating it. If they see that, they'll stop spending it, and although they'll keep eating there you will cease to be a part of the moral math.

Example 4: Proctor & Gamble Corporation

P&G own some of the most recognizable brands in the world - Charmin, Crest (toothpaste), Dawn, Oral-B, Downy, Gain, Pampers, Febreeze, Mr. Clean, etc - and they undoubtedly do some stuff at least some of you will find reprehensible. They are one of the last holdouts manufacturing products in Russia, despite the sanctions. They have used and profited from child and slave labor. They do lots of lobbying for and contributing to both sides of the American political aisle.

But, they are also almost impossible to avoid. The list of brands they own means they have an effective monopoly on many parts (dish soap, laundry detergent, etc) of your grocery basket, no matter what brand you buy. So, what is the moral math on buying those products?

The moral math is necessities are necessary. You can and should contribute to causes you care about, but inasmuch as you can't avoid buying these things, you cannot avoid contributing to that degree to those causes. That's just a part of life, and your unavoidable moral footprint that you leave behind on the world. This is the kind of thing meant by "no ethical consumption under capitalism."

So, go ahead and buy the Pampers if that's what you need. Be aware of what you are contributing to as best you can be, and contribute directly to causes you care about where you can, but below a certain threshold it just isn't worth it to worry about that.

Is this Hogwarts: Legacy? No. First, a video game is not a necessity. Second, even if a video game is a necessity in some circumstance (parents managing their children in specific situations, etc), it needn't be that video game.

Conclusion

JK Rowling is not Proctor & Gamble. She's not even Orson Scott Card, and since she's still alive she definitely isn't Lovecraft. She is directly tied into the backend profits of Hogwarts: Legacy (unlike the game's developers, who have already been paid all they are ever going to - buying this game doesn't support them), in addition to the other licensed Wizarding World merch. She has made it clear that she considers the profitability of that IP to be an endorsement of her views, and a license to keep loudly advocating for them. And, she puts her money where her mouth is.

If you buy that game, you are in essence writing a small check to an anti-trans, anti-Jewish hate group in exchange for your wand-slinging. That is the choice you are making. Now, understanding that ruins the magic of the IP for many, and they choose to avoid Harry Potter entirely. That's a reasonable choice to make. It is also reasonable to say "no, you move" and choose to continue to see favorably the things that framed your childhood, while taking an unambiguous moral stance - through not purchasing the game - against supporting transphobia and antisemitism now. But, if you twist yourself into knots in order to justify purchasing the game, know that no amount of mental gymnastics escapes the basic conclusion that you are supporting those things.

If you didn't know before, you know now. I understand that many say "how can you not know?!?" because JKR has hardly been subtle these past few years... but I'm not one of them. You are allowed to not understand things until you do. But, once you do, you are obligated to act on that newfound understanding. The veil of ignorance is gone, so if you choose that now you know what you're buying, and caveat emptor, because (many of) the trans people in your life care about that.

Why does it matter? I agree that Hogwarts: Legacy is hardly the forefront of the fight for trans rights, but it's a small, easy choice you can make, and that many who claim to care about this issue are nevertheless choosing not to make. I have myself already lost friends and had to leave groups over this. I did that because if you can't make that small choice to protect me or my rights, how the fuck do you expect me to believe you'll stand up for me when it matters more? A minor inconvenience is enough to tip your moral scales, so trans rights might not be nothing to you, but they certainly weigh less than a feather on your conscience. Imagine if David Duke or Fred Phelps became a famous author and people were buying games based on their writings. How would you feel as a Black and/or LGBT person? Yeah.

Anyway, here's a map as of five days ago, of where legislation stands in the United States seeking to ban gender-affirming medical care for trans youth.

But go ahead and enjoy your wizard game.

I don't expect people to stop loving the world, but ceasing support for the author ought to be an easy choice for people to make. Experience suggests otherwise, however.

[hoarding-gremlin]

I’m a DM for a small group of friends, and we have so many lovely quotes, I think it’s time to share some of them them as that game comes to an end. With no context of course.

“Can I roll to see the mushy nuts?”

*an entire scene in which a player busts through a window, and nearly kills another player due to bleeding out… in the first 15 minutes of the first session*

“What, do you have Cthulhu in your pussy or something?”

“You notice a spider tip his hat to you, then skuttle away.”

“You launched the whiskey put of the canon, instantly killing the dinosaur.” “So that’s how the dinosaurs went extinct!”

*after an insanely brutal assault* “*character name* is hot, can I roll to seduce?”

I may add more as I look through the notes.

[selamat-linting]

continuing my last liveblog, this time focused on the characters.

-vriska is. amazing. she is THE CHARACTER EVER. i enjoy her a lot but when it comes to morality, she's... i dont know what to make of her. like, from all the fandom drama i heard secondhand, she was made to be this mass murderer. like yeah, she is responsible to a lot of fuckups in plot, she is ableist to tavros and used aradia's boyfriend sollux to kill her, and sabotaged jade's attempt to get into the game but i think at her core, she's just a 13 year old bully. if she was in a normal human environment, raised by an ordinary family, at worst, she'd be the kind of girls who spread mean rumors of the outcast kids at school. still bad but, garden variety shittiness that can be fixed with age and growth. its the condition she's in that drove her into such terribleness. alternia let kids kill and maim each other, eliminate people who defy the law and customs. its a tyrannical empire and of course the kids produced in that kind of environment are vicious to each other. its not wrong the other kids dont want nothing to do with her and seeing her gets her shit kicked by aradia was cathartic but. man, i still feel very sympathetic to her.

-also, if im not wrong, her romantic relationships now would be :

nicholas cage - one sided matesprit(?)

kanaya maryam - moirail / auspistice (?)

tavros - the most unhealthy kismesis i have ever seen

-also, poor tavros. im waiting for the scene where he gets to kick the shit out of vriska like aradia but alas. its nice that he and vriska seems to get on better terms later on. i have to admit, vriska taking the time to dress up and set the mood to kiss tavros is kind of endearing while also being yikes what the fucking fuck my guy. but anyway, tavros being disabled as only a fodder for stair jokes, and then getting his legs forcibly replaced when the wheelchair jokes gets old, and then making him the butt of the joke again, good god. i want tavros's narrative arc to be treated more seriously. andrew hussie you are an ableist piece of shit you know that right?

-and kanaya! its so interesting how space aspects players are all very aesthetic-minded. they always have the cool pretty stuff. also she had a crush on rose isnt she? the way she admired her gamefaqs playthrough guide reminds of that tumblr fairytale where cinderella reads aurora's diary and fell in love. haha! right after i have that suspicions, i check tumblr to see if theyre a popular ship and apparently theyre also canon? cool. its so nice to be proven right. theyre both unhinged weird girls but in a very subdued way. also, i think karkat have been underestimating how much she helped on cooling down the group's animosities. not just between tavros and vriska, but eridan and feferi too, to an extent.

-speaking of feferi, ugh, i feel so bad for her. i cant believe someone as positive as her could be corrupted by the horrorterrors. one moment, she's the only one preventing a trollnazi and a doomsday lusus from destroying the shit out of everything, and suddenly shes twisting squibbles into cthulhu. "dont you get it, im dead," baller fucking quote but im so sorry girl. she has always been someone who is resigned of the fate of everything, but she never stops trying to make the best of it, unlike aradia.

-Also, why is equius so horny all the time? my god he is so fucking rapey.

-terezi!!! terezi!!! she's my favorite troll. her friendship with dave is so adorable. i like how they start out as enemies mocking each other but end up as (shitty) art buddies. but man, she is just as extreme in her trolling effort like, she did kill john in a timeline. anyway, back to dave and terezi. they both think theyre so cool but theyre actually cringe. also, is the drawing of the guy above the his tyranny writing in her room, meant to be karkat? ugh, i wish im her.

-i dont have much to say over sollux but as a gemini, he has the coolest design. literally the coolest shade ever. twin signs represent!

-karkat is... *grits teeth* self recognition through the other (derogatory). i hate that i shared his classpect. he ruined an objectively awesome title just by being himself. but i never really know what kind of guy he is, just his notoriousness as a grumpy anime boy slash tumblr sexyman. i hate him even more after knowing him btw, because he really is just like me! on the surface, he's just a 13 year old version of jean vicquemare from disco elysium. but seeing his memos, seeing his... everything. oh my god. i hate myself. his constant bitching is my inner voice everytime i have to deal with [redacted] and [redacted]. only that im now old enough to know i shouldnt unleash that to everyone indiscriminately. also, i too did the future writing thing. like, i would actually look at my old diary entries, and wrote a response as if speaking to my past self. but, is it weird that seeing him makes me a bit more confident in my own leadership skills? I dont know. anyway, he's funny. god even him just living his life and breathing is hilarious. i want to see you suffer little man (not in a whump way i want to see him get mad, eat shit, and react to ridiculous shit)

-JADE!!!! i miss her a lot. finally she's in the game. she's one of the nicest and the coolest of the beta kids. and i envy her house a lot. im sick of her being out of the loop. also, just from her science alone, she's pretty OP. she dont need powers to defeat the imps. she's very much my favorite out of the beta kids

-i cannot believe dave resorts to ruining the stock market. he would have liked nfts. cant believe that plotline exists and it was actually an elaborate troll plot. i cant wait to see him blossom to his cool future selves. caw caw motherfucker was impressive as hell despite being ridiculous. i have no idea how his sprite make that cool. also, his bro's dead? its kinda sad. like, i know the training and the smuppet shit wasnt exactly healthy and sane but, its still a tragedy that he never really get the chance to understand his parent or get closure. bro's dead. thats it.

[knightoflodis]

?? So. We saying just jumping into JRPGs in general or specific series? Because if we talking in general then we hand them Pokemon. Next. I personally would actually recommend a couple indie “JRPGs”. (I put that in quotes because I consider JRPG inspired western made RPGs to be JRPGs but some might not). These indie RPGs I would recommend would be simple quick ones that should run you under 15 maybe 20 hours of game time and they should be very cheap off of steam (my personal suggestion here is anything from ZeBoyd Games, like Cthulhu Saves the World). After that I would look and see what is currently out there. We are currently swimming in plenty of remakes and remasters of so many JRPGs. Though. If they are looking into a specific series, I would gush about my favorite in that series while helping them to look into what is currently out and accessible. And then do research with them into what would fit.

As a lover of JRPGs you have to be very aware of the many different levels of access different JRPG series have. Some are more accessible and simple than others. Some are very complicated and long. When looking for a JRPG to play you really got to fine tune it to what you want and what you would enjoy. I mean. Even figuring in the amount of grind you want is important when looking for a game. Some people love to grind. Some people want to control how much they can grind and some want very little grinding. You can’t just hand someone some little known RPG from the 90s without knowing how much grind the person would be okay with.

whenever you ask your friend who’s really into JRPGs “hey which one do i start with is the newest one fine” they always go “no, what you gotta do is head on over to ebay and look up the entry that completely bombed commercially. You’ll see that it goes for $800. Close ebay. Download an emulator for a console no younger than 17 years old. Download the ROM, and also this laundry list of various tweaks, retextures, and QoL tweaks. Pull up this exact spoiler-free guide put up a decade ago from GameFAQs, and you’ll experience the best game this series has to offer.” Like???